Hindi
‘Karle Pyar Karle’, a dull fare…
MUMBAI: Karle Pyar Karle is the launch pad for the third generation Darshan, Shiv Darshan, the son of Suneel Darshan, writer, producer and director of a number of films. Shiv’s grandfather, Darshan Sabharwal, was a producer himself besides having distributed hundreds of films in Central India.
Shiv is a 6’2” hulk of a lad and that limits his launch vehicle to be an action romance. Also, one does not usually expect a newcomer with such a frame to fit an emotional drama. As such, Karle Pyar Karle is designed to be so, a campus romance that soon turns into a fight for survival against a gang lord. This combination of romance and action gives Shiv an ample scope to showcase his proficiency with action, stunts and dance, things one can be trained for.
Shiv and Hasleen are star-crossed lovers forced to part ways in their childhood; Hasleen as well as Shiv’s family is convinced Hasleen is bad news for Shiv because of which he keeps landing in trouble. The duo meets again after a gap of 12 years at a police station. Shiv has been arrested to messing with the city’s traffic system; no idea what is Hasleen doing there! While Shiv has recognised her, she has not despite her childhood claims that she would always recognise him whatever the time lag.
That is not an issue since both happen to be in the same institution, ‘the game is on’ as they often dare each other since childhood. On the campus, there is the usual lot of a villain and his sidekicks. Shiv, now starts to woo back Hasleen till she finds out he is her childhood mate, which she soon does, thanks to a bracelet he had gifted her as a child. They are together again, much in love and it is time for the villain to create a rift between them and create a situation for the interval break.
The second half is all about gangsters. Shiv getting better of each other alternately till the villains are all dead and the lead pair is almost dead! Which is a miracle since the villains are armed with everything from knives, swords, guns and rocket launchers while Shiv prefers to fight with bare hands, well, also legs?
The choice of predictable story and script, among other aspects of the film, is surprising, coming as it does from Suneel Darshan, and for a launch film of his son at that! The hero starts off with a bike stunt, a dance and a fight scene within first few minutes in to the film and with that he has run out of his repertoire of qualifications.
For the rest of the film, things become repetitive. Also, having licked the villain in the opening fight along with his sidekick within seconds it hardly makes any sense to have a long climax fight between the hero and the villain’s sidekick again.
Shiv has limitations. Hasleen lacks screen presence. Direction is below par. For a love story, music is not up to the mark and despite five composers and as many lyric writers on its roaster, the film has just one decent tune in Teri saanson mein…
Karle Pyar Karle faces poor prospects.
Producer: Suneel Darshan.
Director: Rajesh Pandey.
Cast: Shiv Darshan, Hasleen Kaur.
Hindi
India’s telecom subscribers cross 1.32 billion in February 2026
Broadband base swells past 1.06 billion as Jio and Airtel tighten grip on the market.
MUMBAI: India’s telecom sector is ringing in steady growth once again adding millions of new connections every month while the race for broadband supremacy continues to heat up like a fiercely contested cricket match. According to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 1 April 2026, the total telephone subscriber base in the country reached 1,321.31 million at the end of February 2026. This marked a net addition of 7.31 million subscribers during the month, translating into a monthly growth rate of 0.56 per cent.
Wireless subscribers (including mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) stood at 1,273.31 million, registering a net addition of 6.97 million and a growth rate of 0.55 per cent. Within this, urban wireless connections grew to 730.75 million (growth 0.70 per cent), while rural wireless subscribers reached 542.56 million (growth 0.35 per cent).
Wireline subscribers, though much smaller in scale, showed slightly faster growth. The total wireline base increased to 47.99 million, with a net addition of 0.34 million and a monthly growth rate of 0.70 per cent. Urban areas continued to dominate wireline connections with a share of 89.41 per cent.
Overall tele-density in India improved to 92.66 per cent. Urban tele-density stood at 150.68 per cent, while rural tele-density edged up to 60.02 per cent.
The broadband subscriber base crossed a significant milestone, reaching 1,059.05 million at the end of February 2026. This reflected a healthy net addition of 6.33 million subscribers and a monthly growth rate of 0.60 per cent from January’s figure of 1,052.72 million.
Segment-wise, mobile wireless access continued to drive the majority of growth with 996.52 million subscribers. Fixed Wireless Access (including 5G FWA) added 16.51 million, while wired broadband stood at 46.02 million.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. maintained its commanding lead with 519.64 million broadband subscribers. Bharti Airtel Ltd. followed with 364.14 million, Vodafone Idea Ltd. with 129.36 million, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. with 28.70 million, and Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. with 2.38 million.
Together, these top five players command a massive 98.60 per cent share of the total broadband market.
In the wireless (mobile) segment, private operators continued to dominate with 92.59 per cent market share, leaving public sector undertakings (BSNL and MTNL) with just 7.41 per cent.
Out of the total 1,257.29 million wireless (mobile) subscribers, 1,177.60 million were active on the peak Visitor Location Register (VLR) date, representing an impressive 93.66 per cent activity rate. Bharti Airtel led in this metric with 99.42 per cent of its subscribers active.
Meanwhile, 14.47 million subscribers submitted requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in February, indicating healthy competition and customer churn across zones.
While urban areas still lead in absolute numbers, rural connectivity is slowly catching up. Rural wireless tele-density stood at 59.46 per cent, compared with the much higher urban figure of 142.32 per cent.
Fixed Wireless Access using 5G technology also showed promising traction, growing to 11.93 million subscribers. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are the primary players driving this segment.
The data paints a picture of a maturing yet still rapidly expanding telecom ecosystem. With total telephone subscribers now well past the 1.32 billion mark and broadband users comfortably above 1.06 billion, India continues to solidify its position as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic digital markets.
From bustling city streets to remote villages, more Indians are staying connected than ever before proving that when it comes to telecom, the country’s appetite for growth shows no signs of hanging up anytime soon.
